Summer Things to do in Tome

Tome isn't anything like the bustling cities of Tokyo or Kyoto.  In fact, the nearest city resembling these is an hour train ride south, Sendai.  Tome and the surrounding cities in Miyagi Prefecture are quite rural, and are comprised of many little collections of civilization amongst the rice paddies and dairies.  Public transportation is scarce compared to big cities, and most locals drive cars to get around from home to work to grocery stores and back.  But despite the rice fields and cows, there are plenty of activities to keep one busy during the summer vacation time in Tome!

Hasu-Matsuri / Lotus Flower Festival

Every August, at a couple different lakes, there are boat tours one can take when the lotus flowers are in bloom.  We went to Naganuma Lake just after my good friends Greck and Junji got into the local train station for a short visit!

View of Lake from Hill
The green between the trees is
all the lotus plants, and you can
see the boat routes of water cut through
the forest.

Boat Dock

Lotus without pedals looks like a shower head

Greck and Junji

You can see the path for the boat between the plants.

Healthy lotus flowers close up
in the afternoon. Dying flowers
loose their ability to close up.

A cool cross view of the inside
of the flower.

Forest of Lotus

View of Shore

Hanabi / Fireworks Festival

The very day after we went to the lotus festival, there was the famous fireworks festival that includes an incredible fireworks display known as the "Niagara Falls."  Unfortunately, Greck and Junji had to catch their Shinkansen (Bullet Train) up to Hokkaido earlier that day, but a big group of JETs all got together and crammed into Sophie's car to get to this event!  This event was held at Naganuma, the same lake where we did the lotus boat tour.

The show began with many firework like those
found in America for Fourth of July.

These were particularly cool as they sprang up
from the lake, giving it a much different feel from
the typical spheres.

As the show progressed, they began to overlap more and more fireworks, lighting off the sky-bound spheres over the fireworks sprouting from the lake.  There seemed to be 3 base stations over the lake where the fireworks were coming from.

This is the famous Niagara Falls that was the finale to the show.  This is a quick progression from beginning to end.  They used a string drawn over the lake by two large cranes with the fireworks on the string to produce the flames.  Once it gets going, it becomes easy to see why it's named Niagara Falls as the fire resembles a the water fall, and the smoke resembles mist.  This was a treat!  Last year, due to the East Japan Earthquake, they were unable to produce the Niagara Falls.  I'm very glad it was back this year!

It died out soon, but was
impressive nonetheless

Visit a Museum

While Greck and Junji were still in town, we took a walk down the main street in our town to the old elementary school that is now a museum.  The description as to why it's famous is all in kanji, but Junji explained that the kanji said it was the first school to be designed with both traditional and Western architecture.

View of the Front of the School

The boards had traditional Katakana
alphabet charts.

This school bell was used to designate
the beginning and end of class.

Music-related Festivals

I've already shared a bit about my experience seeing two musical concerts in one day, both relating to summer activities in Tome.  Read about those in my other post, Music Already?!